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Monday, April 16, 2012

Festive Homemade Party Poppers

I made these "party poppers" for a New Year's party, but they can be customized to any type of party and would also be fun for a class or children's project, wedding favor, birthday party, etc. They are fun to make!

Instructions:Choose colors according to your theme, or by what you have laying around the house... Because I made these just after Christmas, I used leftover wrapping paper. One of these papers was a little too holiday happy, so I actually used the inside rather than the outside.

Also, I was able to use the cardboard from inside the wrapping paper itself, so that made this easier than collecting a ton of toilet paper rolls.

To begin, cut the cardboard rolls you are using. For each popper, you will need two even pieces of cardboard (this is so the popper can be easily snapped apart). Cut the cardboard rolls into one 4 to 6 inch piece and then cut that in half, keeping the halves as even as possible. Try to keep the cut pieces together as they will fit back together easier. Now, this will seem odd, but tape them lightly back together! Use as little tape as possible so that they can be easily broken apart.

Next, cut a 12-inch square of tissue paper or lightweight wrapping paper for each roll. Set each taped roll down in the middle the paper. Now it is time to fill the popper! Stuff it as full as possible with whatever festive treats you are using! Then, roll the popper in the tissue paper. Secure the popper with curling ribbon (and tape, around the middle).

Once you have tied the ribbon on, you can curl it! Use a pair of scissors to get it nice and curly. I used a ton of ribbon to make these very festive.

The next step
was the most time consuming. Cut out two
pieces of wrapping paper, one for each side of the popper. Secure these around the popper with tape, leaving about an inch of the original tissue paper exposed in the middle. This is so the party poppers will be easy to break in half (see below).

If you are patient, OCD, or utterly insane, as I am, you can cut zigzag decoration into the edges of the wrapping paper. I did this with whole sheets first, and then cut the smaller pieces from it. These don't have to be perfect, in fact, I discovered they looked better if they were different lengths. To make this look really nice, bend the separate pieces of paper forward then backward, which will give a flared look to the end of the poppers.

At this point, the poppers are done. You can choose to add additional flare with markers, pens or additional ribbons, etc. I decided to draw tiny martini glasses on these with glitter pens, but the glitter came out a little thick and didn't look as nice as I would have liked. All in all, these came out cute though, and I will definitely make them again for a different occasion. Good luck!